"Warm Heart of Africa" [ft. Ezra Koenig]

Man, just a few years ago everyone I knew without a history degree in dance music was trying to figure out what the hell Balearic was-- never mind why it was being revived. Now every other new band with a solid 7" has "tropical" in their MySpace description-- half of them are serious, too. If it seems like, en masse, everyone in a basement noise/electronic group has a hazy, lazy summer-anthem side project, it's probably because they do. It's almost a fitting tombstone for the CD, which rode in during the mid-1980s on a wave of expensive, chin-stroking global crossover hoo-ha and is now being showed the door by one of the most carnivorous and CD-allergic scenes I can recall all decade. (Seriously, this music comes out on vinyl, digital, mixtape, even cassette-- anything but CD).

It's an embarrassment of riches, and when this Very Best LP finally lands it's going to get a lot richer, especially if you're not weirded out about actual good-sounding sunshine pop mixing with the lo-fi stuff (which you shouldn't be because that's just odd.) One of the LP highlights finds VW's Ezra Koenig signing on a song named for Malawi's tourist slogan-- it's almost like he's rubbing it in his critics' face-- but he sounds like a natural. Esau Mwamwaya does even more so, riding a sample of Victor Uwaifo's "Guitar Boy" with one of the most effortlessly lovable voices around in a season full of effortlessly lovable sounds.